Cancer cells display altered cellular lipid metabolism, including disruption in endogenous lipid synthesis, storage, and exogenous uptake for membrane biogenesis and functions. Altered lipid metabolism and, consequently, lipid composition impacts cellular function by affecting membrane structure and properties, such as fluidity, rigidity, membrane dynamics, and lateral organization. Herein, we provide an overview of lipid membranes and how their properties affect cellular functions. We also detail how the rewiring of lipid metabolism impacts the lipidomic landscape of cancer cell membranes and influences the characteristics of cancer cells. Furthermore, we discuss how the altered cancer lipidome provides cues for developing lipid‐inspired innovative therapeutic and diagnostic strategies while improving our limited understanding of the role of lipids in cancer initiation and progression. We also present the arcade of membrane characterization techniques to cement their relevance in cancer diagnosis and monitoring of treatment response.
Synthetic channels with high ion selectivity are attractive drug targets for diseases involving ion dysregulation. Achieving selective transport of divalent ions is highly challenging due their high hydration energies. A small tripeptide amphiphilic scaffold installed with a pybox ligand selectively transports Cu II ions across membranes. The peptide forms stable dimeric pores in the membrane and transports ions by a Cu 2 + /H + antiport mechanism. The ligand-induced excellent Cu II selectivity as well as high membrane permeability of the peptide is exploited to promote cancer cell death. The peptide's ability to restrict mycobacterial growth serves as seeds to evolve antibacterial strategies centred on selectively modulating ion homeostasis in pathogens. This simple peptide can potentially function as a universal, yet versatile, scaffold wherein the ion selectivity can be precisely controlled by modifying the ligand at the C terminus.
Membranes are crucial cell components underlying optimal cellular functioning under diverse conditions including cancer. The membrane physiology requires acute maintenance of biophysical properties and a regulation of cellular lipidome. Homeostatic adaptation of membranes to temperature, pressure and anti-cancer drugs is a well-recognized. However, how the same is regulated under the influence of oxygen deprivation in pancreatic cancers-highly hypoxic cancer- is not known. Here, we report robust lipidomic remodelling in response to HIF-1α induction in pancreatic cancer cells and significant accumulation of lipid droplets. The lipidome rewiring span changes across various lipid classes, levels of unsaturation and acyl chain lengths. Interestingly, despite extensive lipidome alteration, cellular membrane homeostatic response ensures no major modulation of membrane biophysical properties underlying enhanced migratory potential. The correlation of lipidome changes, with pathway analysis and proteomics provide the basis for mutually exclusive regulation of lipidome and membrane properties. These findings help to understand the hypoxic regulation of pancreatic membrane homeostasis.
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